The Thieves Guild by Jake Kerr

Author:Jake Kerr [Kerr, Jake]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Broadsword Books

36

The Deputy Guildmaster

Maela's skillful lies to Tim, which made her mission much easier in her first attempt to reach Polo, was now making her mission much more difficult. If he saw her, he would know she wasn't a miner, and she had no doubt he would drag her to prison. So she had to avoid all of the places that she had staked out before in an effort to get close to Tim. Unfortunately, as he was a senior guard at Harvest House, that meant that a lot of the places where she could get additional information from senior Harvest Guild people were now closed to her—Tim would be there, too.

Harvest House stood in between the Outer Fields and the Harvest District, where many of the senior guild officials lived. There was a thin strip of park beside the large road that ran along the Outer Fields, and Maela sat on a bench watching the fields of golden grain blow in the wind while eating an apple and considering her options.

She knew she really only had one option, and it was an extremely dangerous one—sneaking up into Polo's quarters and talking to him there. She didn't know who the Blade of the Merchant Guild was, but she knew they had one, and if that assassin wasn't able to get to Polo, how did she think she could?

The answer was ultimately one that Maela couldn't keep out of her head as she considered her options—the Tree. She had been half kidding when she mentioned the tree as a secret way to get to Polo's quarters, but the look on Tim's face had been clear. There was some truth to her passing comment. The presence of guards near the tree in an empty room also seemed to indicate that there was a passage there.

The trouble was that as she ran up and moved around the tree she had looked closely for a passage but found nothing. There was more than enough room for a passage, but there were no doors or carved steps. So the question for Maela was whether she would have time to investigate the tree, find the passage, and then climb to Polo's quarters before the guards grabbed her. She didn't want to kill them as there was no doubt that once she talked to Polo she would be captured. Being captured after warning Polo of an assassination attempt was one thing. Being captured after killing senior guild guards was something else entirely.

Reaching back, Maela threw the core of the apple with all her strength into the field. There was one other option, but Maela had resisted it, as she felt it would indicate that she was a failure—warn Polo's deputy, Esmer, instead of Polo himself. Maela had no doubt that if she could convince Esmer, he would pass the message to Polo. Putting her pride aside, Maela decided that approaching Esmer was the prudent path forward. She would worry about the tree only if it were necessary.

Unfortunately, Esmer

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